Notes . 
343 
Whether the soda-water and sugar will prove to be the best medium 
to cultivate it in or not remains to be seen, but it is clear from the 
five cultures I have made so far that the organism ferments very well 
under these circumstances. 
I also desire to call attention to the following quotation from 
Cross and Bevan’s book on Cellulose, 1895, p. 71, in this connexion, 
as it seems not impossible that the clots of ‘ white insoluble substance ’ 
there referred to may be this remarkable organism. On referring to 
Durin’s paper in the Comptes Rendus — I can only find the second of 
the two papers mentioned — I find no evidence of any microscopic 
analysis of the clots, and it seems by no means unlikely that the 
existence of the micro-organism was overlooked. 
‘ As a result of a change which is observed to be set up “ spontane- 
ously” in beet-juice, a white insoluble substance is formed, and 
separated in lumps or clots ; this substance has all the characteristics 
of cellulose. After separating this insoluble cellulose, the solution 
gives with alcohol a gelatinous precipitate resembling the hydrates of 
cellulose previously described. These results are independent of the 
so-called viscous or mucous fermentations. That the process by 
which the cellulose is formed has the essential features of a fermentation- 
process, is seen from the fact that when the lumps or clots are 
transferred to a solution of pure cane-sugar or beet-molasses, a further 
formation of the cellulose ensues. When the process proceeds in 
neutral solution no carbonic anhydride is evolved ; but in presence of 
acids this gas is evolved, and at the same time acetic acid is formed 
in the solutions/ 
‘ E. Durin, by whom these phenomena have been investigated 
(Compt. Rend. 82, 1078; 83, 128), regards the ferment as allied to 
diastase, and states that fresh solutions of diastase itself act on 
solutions of sugar to form the soluble cellulose, precipitable by alcohol. 
There is also some evidence that cellulose may be formed from cane 
sugar in the plant by processes of this kind/ 
The above, and several other problems connected with this interest- 
ing group of organisms, are now being investigated by Dr. Green in 
this laboratory. 
But the proof that B. vermiforme is introduced with the sugar is all 
but complete. On referring to a paper by Koch and Hosaeus in the 
Cent. f. Bakt. B. xvi, 1894, p. 225, I find these authors discovered and 
figure a form evidently identical with mine, or so close to it that they 
